Chicken Liver Adobo – Guest Post by Adobo Down Under

I grew up in the south of Spain and had the privilege of attending a DOD school, on the Rota Naval Base. I say privilege because although my father was not military, my brother and I were allowed to go to school on the Base, and most importantly we had the opportunity to experience many things American that we wouldn’t have otherwise, since we both grew up in Spain. (Plus thanks to this, I have a perfect American accent when speaking English! ;))

One of the most important aspects of going to a Department of Defense school, aside from the quality education, is the diversity amongst the students and teachers. There are literally children from everywhere in the world, with mixed backgrounds, mixed races, different religions, and different languages and cultures. So, it’s a beautiful way to grow up without preconceived prejudices. I had friends of all nationalities…and some of my best friends still to this day are Filipino or half-Filipino.

I remember learning how to make lumpia, eating pancit, longaniza and many other traditional Filipino dishes that I still enjoy today, although less frequently since going Paleo. For me these dishes are part of my teenage years and bring back very fond memories. I even learned some Tagalog, which I have mostly forgotten now, except for some “loanwords” that come from the Spanish language, such as “mesa”.

Spain has a long history with the Philippines and probably not always a good one, although the Spanish culture seems to have permeated into a number of aspects of the Filipino culture, language and life and vice versa. In Spain, our famous “manton de Manila”, which we claim to be traditional Spanish is something the Spanish conquistadores brought back from the Philippines, just like our “abanico” was brought back possibly from another part of Asia. My great-grandfather fought in the Spanish-American War, and I remember my grandmother telling me stories about his “adventures”.

So, when I discovered Anna, from Adobo Down Under, in the Sweet Adventures Blog Hop, I was delighted to see that she’s from the Philippines and her blog’s main focus is traditional Filipino food. And although Adobo’s blog is not Paleo, many of her savoury recipes are, and her other recipes can be easily Paleolised. I love to get inspiration from other cuisines around the world and I thought sharing Filipino food from a true Filipino would be inspiring to all of us to try something new, if you are not already familiar with this cuisine.

I’ve mentioned Adobo before on my blog, and how we follow each other on social media. We’ve become blogger buddies and I truly enjoy being witness to and learning from her life musings through what she shares on Instagram and Facebook. It’s always interesting to see how the seasons change in Australia, where Anna and her family live, and how beautiful it must be over there. I have many countries on my wish list, but I’m definitely partial now to visiting Australia and The Philippines… I hope one day I will be that lucky.

In the meantime, I will continue to follow and learn from Anna… and I hope you will too. She has a lovely blog, with beautiful stories, “musings” as she calls them, delicious recipes (which can be easily made into Paleo), and pretty photography.

But I’m sure you’re eager to see an example of her dishes, so without further ado, I leave you with her recipe for today’s post, which is the first guest post on my blog! (We had been planning this for months actually, but Anna has been studying a culinary course, so we had to wait until she was finished and could dedicate time to a post. It’s a true honour to finally be able to feature one of Adobo’s recipes by Anna herself, aside from this one I shared the other day and Paleolised.)

Ah, one last thing…please don’t forget to check her out and follow her on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.

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First of all, let me say G’day mate and Mabuhay!

I am Anna – writer, cook, baker and photographer behind the blog Adobo Down Under.  My blog contains musings on parenting, on learning to be Australian and basically engaging my readers into my world –  Filipino raising a family in Sydney Australia.

I’d like to thank The Saffron Girl for the invitation to guest post.  I have never done anything like this, and it has made me excited so much that I could not decide on what Filipino dish to share, considering Debra’s dishes are mostly Paleo.    It had to be something “adobo” as it is a classic in Filipino homes, and I think chicken liver adobo will be perfect.

If you are familiar with the Filipino cuisine, you would know our meals are always served, if not, made with rice.  From breakfast to dinner, from morning tea and snacks to desserts.  This particular dish is usually served with rice.   When I made this and took a photo of the cooked chicken liver adobo, no matter how many garnish, it still looked very unappealing. So I thought reinventing the dish into a simple pate would be the best option.  I hope you like it.

*Note from The Saffron Girl: you can use gluten-free soy sauce in this recipe, of course.